Comey: Next stop for Patriots, Peyton's place

Patriots, Broncos play for AFC title

Patriots fans were surely glued to their televisions Sunday night watching the Denver Broncos play the San Diego Chargers, knowing that a San Diego win would present the clearest path to New England's sixth Super Bowl trip since 2001.

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By JONATHAN COMEY

capecodtimes.com

By JONATHAN COMEY

Posted Jan. 13, 2014 at 2:00 AM

By JONATHAN COMEY
Posted Jan. 13, 2014 at 2:00 AM

What's next

Surprise! In what seemed a foregone conclusion, it'll be Tom Brady and the Patriots against Peyton Manning and the Broncos in Sunday's AFC title game, with a berth in the Super Bowl on the line. Th...

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What's next

Surprise! In what seemed a foregone conclusion, it'll be Tom Brady and the Patriots against Peyton Manning and the Broncos in Sunday's AFC title game, with a berth in the Super Bowl on the line. The game's at Denver. In Week 12 at Foxboro, the Patriots rallied from a 24-0 deficit to beat the Broncos in overtime, 34-31.

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Patriots fans were surely glued to their televisions Sunday night watching the Denver Broncos play the San Diego Chargers, knowing that a San Diego win would present the clearest path to New England's sixth Super Bowl trip since 2001.

But when they watched Peyton Manning take a knee in the "victory formation" at the end of Denver's 24-17 win, they must have realized it: This is what they wanted all along.

Manning made a point to emphasize in the postgame interview Sunday on the question of his personal history with Brady, "It's Broncos vs. Patriots."

And that is certainly the case. If we've learned anything from watching a decade-plus of Bill Belichick teams, it takes a village to raise a Lombardi Trophy.

The Broncos have many high-caliber offensive players, dangerous special teams and a defense that rose to the occasion on Sunday. And the Patriots have great coaching, an opportunistic secondary and a perennially great offensive line.

But above all, the Patriots have Brady. And Denver has Manning. And that, more than anything else, is why they're in the AFC title game.

As much as Chargers at Patriots might have been nice for New England fans, in the end you've got to beat the best to win the Super Bowl, and the Broncos are the ultimate test.

Make no mistake, San Diego would have been a better opponent — the Patriots deserve to be the six-point underdogs Las Vegas made them after Denver's win Sunday night.

Brady is 2-4 all time in Denver, and Manning is 16-3 there since taking over as Broncos CEO-on-the-field in 2012. Denver also has the edge in most of the ways that count — more explosive offense, healthier defense, home fans, mile-high experience.

Beating them on the road takes a whole lot of things going right; as Belichick said Sunday morning in his conference call, "We're going to have to play better than we played (Saturday) night."

Against an undertalented Colts team, the Patriots knew that they just had to fluster Andrew Luck to win the game — and they did that. But they weren't crisp in the passing game or in pass coverage, and a similar effort against Denver would be a killer.

Still, despite any of the facts and figures, it feels all of the history, matchups, scouting reports and trends will add up to nothing when the game kicks off at 3 Sunday afternoon.

You might think the game will go this way, or that, but in the end it's going to play out in a uniquely memorable fashion — and the last team standing will probably be the last team to do something great in an epic slugfest.

This meeting has felt like fate since the teams' incredible meeting in November, and nothing that happened this weekend shook that feeling. Both teams took care of business in a controlled manner against inferior teams, but there will be no such luxury on Sunday.

Neither will there be the luxury (for New England, at least) of the type of inclement weather that's always played in its favor: the long-range forecast from Thursday through Monday in Denver calls for a zero percent chance of rain, negligible winds, and springlike temperatures.

The Patriots will run the ball, as they have all season, but they'll need to throw — maybe a lot. Belichick and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels will have to come up with another perfect game plan, and they're certainly capable of doing that.

But it'll be up to Manning and Brady to execute. They are both so great, and their time in the league is becoming so obviously finite, that every game they play is more and more intense, more indelibly stamped on the memories of football fans.

That they'll play Sunday for a 15th time, this one for the AFC championship, both in their late 30s, both another ring away from claiming rights to the "Greatest Of All Time" moniker, is ... well, it's kind of indescribable, isn't it?

Gives you goose bumps just thinking about it — but that's par for the course for the Brady-Belichick-Manning years that seem unlikely to be matched by whatever the next chapter is here in New England.

The next chapter can wait. For now, let's enjoy this saga for all it's worth.